Finance Bill

The right hon. Gentleman knows that nowadays the majority of PFI liabilities are being recorded on the public balance sheet—indeed, over time, they all will be—whereas in 1997, a minority were recorded. His charge that it is this Government who have been concealing these things is not true. In the same way, if, in retrospect, public sector pensions should have been recorded on the public balance sheet in 1997, the position as regards national debt that we inherited in 1997 should have been much higher as a percentage of GDP than the 43.6 per cent. that my hon. Friend the Financial Secretary quoted.